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Australia Wrap

It’s Tuesday morning and the alarm clock just went off. Monday has already been circumnavigated with a “sick day”, but there is nothing more you can do to dodge the stinging pain of responsibility. The snooze button affords you another ten minutes of attempting to prolong your avoidance of reality. But you’re only able to toss and turn during your short and restless slumber. Counting down the minutes, the seconds, and checking the clock excessively to confirm your pessimistic belief that time is against you. The only small glimmer of hope you have left, resides in that final minute of the snooze. The chance to reconnect with the dream world again, if only just for a moment, before you are rudely thrust into the painful announce of that fucking beeping and the overwhelming realization that the morning grind is awaiting you.

Returning to Brisbane from New Zealand was our alarm clock. We were forced to face the realization that our full nights sleep is now reduced to just minutes. Our journey is no longer spoke of in the time frame of months but rather weeks. Our plane tickets home have been purchased and our bank account is screaming “You better get your ass a job!”. It seems our dream of traveling the world is nearing an end. In just one day it will officially be a year on the road. It’s difficult to keep from tossing and turning, while counting down the precious hours we have left before we leave this amazing dream world, and eventually go back to work.

But we’re not going to play that restless snooze button game. We’re not going to let the knowledge that our trip is coming to an end hang over our head and spoil our remaining days. We are going to take the time to sit up, do a little finger math, reset the alarm for another hour of sleep, and use a pathetic generalized lie for our tardiness.

Like traffic was bad or my bus was late.

In our case, that means tacking on a return visit to Ireland for St. Patties day and a road trip up the west cost. Our excuse is easy, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity!

Um, you only get one chance to do something for the second time?

We call this post our Australia wrap strictly due to the formalities of adhering to the structural integrity of our blog. It really should be called ‘Brisbane Wrap’ or better yet, ‘Waring House Wrap’, which is where it felt like we spent most of our time. The addition to our travel plans and the fact that we have been on the road for the last year, left us with a long laundry list of things to do.

We returned to Brisbane with more than just a plan to spend every last penny we have (and don’t have). We also managed to bring the weather that had been chasing us around New Zealand with us. Our first four days back in Brisbane were spent inside. As the torrential down pour wrecked havoc on the entire east coast of Australia. Right through my very first Australia Day. This was meant to be a day of drinking, sausage sizzles, and crazy over the top patriotism. But it was reduced to a day of sitting inside and discussing how shitty it was that it was raining on Australia Day.

It had been all sunshine and blue skies in Australia while we were away and the same for New Zealand once we left. We couldn’t even catch a break in Byron Bay when we made our way down south for a couple of days. But we didn’t let the weather discourage us or keep us from doing what we do best. Adding inches to our waistline through the perpetual consumption of large quantities of alcohol?

Bret: Hey Sally! SALLY!

Sally: What!?

Bret: Guess what!?

Sally: What. . . ?

Bret: Even with all that drinking and eating we’ve been doing, I only put on 6 pounds!

Sally: You know that scale is in kilos, right?

Bret: Ohhh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . shit.

Food:

When you have the luxury of lodging with locals (Sally’s parents), you get to the inside track to all of the good spots to eat. So we happily followed their lead to several good pubs and restaurants But top of our list had to be the German Club. The food is portioned large enough to make Fat Bastard pass on seconds and the beers are nothing short of fucking awesome!

Top Rated:

The top activity for Australia would have to be visiting what I would call some of the best beaches in the world. This is based on of surf, cleanliness, amount of actual beach, water clarity, water temperature, and general vibe (i.e. not getting harassed every five minutes to buy something or worrying about your shit getting stolen).

A pretty distant second place, or actually there really isn’t a second place, more like a tie for fourth place, would be the time we got to spend with the family.

Ah-ha! Just kidding. Of course catching up with Sally’s family is top of the list! It is always great to see them and considering it’s only once every few years, this trip was really nice, because we got to hang around almost to the point of wearing out our welcome.